From the “Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100” live stream featuring Beyonce to landmark videos like “Despacito,” “New Rules” and “This Is America,” people come to YouTube to be part of music culture and discover new music.

But YouTube was made for watching, which meant fans have had to jump back and forth between multiple music apps and YouTube. Those days will soon be over. Today, we’re excited to bring YouTube Music to South Africa.

YouTube Music is a new music streaming service made for music listening, on top of the magic of YouTube: making the world of music easier to explore and more personalized than ever. Whether you want to listen, watch or discover - all the ways music moves you can be found in one place.

Recommendations built for you. A home screen that dynamically adapts to provide recommendations based on what you’ve played before, where you are and what you’re doing. At the gym workin’ on that fitness? Escaping during your commute? The right music is right here, built just for you.

Thousands of playlists across any genre, mood or activity. That means no matter what kind of music you like, where you are, what you’re doing, or what mood you’re in, you can easily find the right playlist for that moment. Try “House hotlist” to discover the best in house music or “SA’s hip hop hotlist” to get the heart rate going.

The hottest new music. We’ll keep you on top of what’s hot! The hottest videos in the country right now are right there, on their own dedicated Hotlist screen. And our popular YouTube Charts like Top 100 Songs South Africa are available in YouTube Music as playlists so you can keep up with the latest and greatest.

No internet? No problem. Get YouTube Music Premium to listen ad-free, in the background and on-the-go with downloads. Plus, your Offline Mixtape automatically downloads songs and videos you love just in case you forgot to.

While fans can enjoy the new ad-supported version of YouTube Music for free, we’re also launching YouTube Music Premium, a paid membership that gives you background listening, downloads and an ad-free experience for R59.99 a month. And for a limited time, music fans can get three months free of YouTube Music Premium here, R59.99 per month after, R89.99 per month for a Family Plan).

YouTube Premium also launches today
Starting today, you can also upgrade to YouTube Premium, providing members with the benefits of Music Premium, plus ad-free, background, downloads across all of YouTube. Try YouTube Premium free for three months here, R71.99 per month after, R109.99 per month for a Family Plan).

Google Play Music subscribers will automatically receive access to YouTube Music Premium at their current price. Nothing is changing with Google Play Music - you'll still be able to access all of your purchased music, uploads and playlists in Google Play Music just like always.